Preparation of metallic and semiconducting SWCNT inks by a simple chromatographic method: a two-parameter study

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) show either metallic or semiconducting character, and are potential candidates for the development of small electronic devices. However, commercial SWCNT materials consist of a mixture of many different SWCNT conformations and certain impurities. In this work, SWCNTs are dispersed in an aqueous medium, purified by centrifugation, and finally separated into metallic and semiconducting inks by a gel chromatog-raphy method. The separation is directly performed at ambient conditions, and the influence of the ink concentration and the chromatography column length are thoroughly evaluated. The most efficient separation, distinguishing between fami-lies of semiconducting SWCNT with different diameters, is achieved at the lowest concentration and with the longest column. These results provide a promising base for availability of SWCNTs with well-defined characteristics needed for the de-velopment of electronic devices.This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 642742.Peer reviewe